Gnostic Religion in Antiquity

by Roelof Van Den Broek

Gnostic religion is the expression of a religious worldview which is dominated by the concept of Gnosis, an esoteric knowledge of God and the human being which grants salvation to those who possess it. Roelof van den Broek presents here a fresh approach to the gnostic current of Late Antiquity within its historical and religious context, based on sources in Greek, Latin and Coptic, including discussions of the individual works of preserved gnostic literature. Van den Broek explores the various gnostic interpretations of the Christian faith that were current in the second and third centuries, whilst showing that despite its influence on early Christianity, gnostic religion was not a typically Christian phenomenon. This book will be of interest to theologians, historians of religion, students and scholars of the history of Late Antiquity and early Christianity, as well as specialists in ancient gnostic and hermetic traditions.

Genres: Religion, Gnosticism, Nonfiction, History, Esoterica, Christianity

272 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Roelof "Roel" van den Broek is a Dutch religious scholar. He was a professor of Religious History of the Hellenistic period at Utrecht University between 1979 and 1991. He subsequently was a professor of history of Christianity until his retirement in 1997.

Reviews

[Luis · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is clear that the author knows his topic, and the research he has done is extensive, not only in the field of Gnostic religion, but in the general and excentric religious mileu of the first centuries of our era, in hermetism, neoplatonism, early jewish mysticism, and, of course, he works quite confidently with the vast wealth of information on biblical studies, (all of this is necessary to understand gnosticism well). This book is an introduction to the gnostic religions of the 2nd, 3rd and early 4th centuries in the roman empire, with a certain emphasis in Egypt. A big part of the book is a summary and analysis of the books of the Gnostic corpus (which are the sources from which we know the gnostics in their own words, mostly from the Nag Hamadi collection, but he also surveys other surviving works in other collections like the books of Jeu and the few inscriptions, and he also surveys the writings of a few church fathers who mentioned and criticised the gnostics) His task is enormous, and it could feel rather short, (of course if you really want to delve deeper into the gnostics you really have to read the sources yourself, and use this book as a guide). The problem of the book is probably not related to the book per se, but to the subject and the difficulty of surveying it. There are far too many cosmogonies, too many aeons, a docen of interpretations of who is the Man and the divine man and the son of man, plus three adams, three types of beings, sometimes Yaldabaoth is evil, sometimes he's just stupid, sometimes he is neither. Each variaty of gnosticism brings it's own salvation, it's exégesis. It can be very puzzling and confusing to memorize all of these visions. So that confusion, that level of entanglement maybe have required a more calm exposition to make the reader learn with more clarity. This is the reason I give it 4 stars instead of 5. Otherwise I learned a lot, and it gave me a lot of ideas and a new understanding of the cultural, religious and philosophical mileu of the early christian era.